Rally Finland: Stobart leg two afternoon notes

Wilson maintains points hope in Finland
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Matthew Wilson maintained his top-ten
position on the middle section of Day 2 at Neste Oil Rally Finland. The
young Briton and co-driver Scott Martin lost ground in the...

Wilson maintains points hope in Finland

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Matthew Wilson maintained his top-ten
position on the middle section of Day 2 at Neste Oil Rally Finland. The
young Briton and co-driver Scott Martin lost ground in the battle with
Finn Jari Ketomaa on the first stage after service but have bounced back
to produce another strong performance to keep them in the fight for a
points-scoring finish.

Wilson had been battling with Ketomaa for eighth place after the opening
loop of stages, but he lost around 15 seconds on SS14 when he was forced
to pull over and restart the car after the ignition switch on his Ford
Focus RS WRC was knocked off after landing from a big jump.

The crew thought that they had clipped a rock near the end of SS16
Surkee and exercised extra caution on the last few kilometres of the
stage but still produced a top-eight time giving them confidence going
into the final section of the day.

For the third and final section of Day 2 the rally moves to Mantta for
a further three stages, concluding with the longest of the rally, the
29.29km Vaarinmaja.

Meanwhile the Stobart team have confirmed that Wilson's team mate
Henning Solberg and co-driver Cato Menkerud will return to action under
SupeRally conditions tomorrow morning following his retirement on SS12
today.

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford driver Matthew Wilson said:

"On the first stage out after service we landed hard after a jump, the
ignition switch was knocked off and the engine cut out. We coasted to
the side of the road, pulled over and luckily managed to restart the
car, but we lost about 15 seconds. It was unfortunate as that stage was
going really well up to that point. It's difficult to judge some of the
jumps and you definitely need experience here to know how fast to take
them. A little difference in speed makes a big difference in how far you
jump. This morning we took it quite easy over a lot of the big jumps,
but this afternoon we pushed very slightly harder and it made a huge
difference in how much we took off."